This week<\/a> brought the beginning of a political reckoning. Multiple elected officials who previously backed Basabe\u2019s re-election bid publicly pulled their support, pointing straight at the jury\u2019s findings as the reason.<\/p>\n The most notable came from Democratic Rep. Jose Alvarez, a former Kissimmee Mayor who endorsed Basabe last Summer in part because Basabe had helped get Alvarez\u2019s first bill through the Legislature during his freshman year. That relationship wasn\u2019t enough to survive last week\u2019s verdict, with Alvarez telling Florida Politics he simply can\u2019t stand behind someone with that record.<\/p>\n Surfside Commissioner Ruben Coto and Bal Harbour Council Member Buzzy Sklar also rescinded their support. Coto, a Republican who backed Basabe in November, said his prior support no longer holds, no matter how much work Basabe has put in for the area. Sklar went further, posting a blunt verdict of his own alongside a call for Basabe to leave office.<\/p>\n Sunny Isles Beach Commissioner\u00a0Alex Lama followed, saying he was \u201cdisgusted<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Basabe\u2019s math isn\u2019t getting any easier, either. His two Democratic rivals for the seat, Lucia B\u00e1ez-Geller and Ashley Litwin Diego, have each pulled in more campaign cash than he has this cycle.<\/p>\n Democrats were always going to have their eye on this seat in November. The better question now is: Do Republicans seek to abandon ship before this gets any worse?<\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s on to our weekly game of winners and losers.<\/p>\n Winners<\/p>\n Honorable mention: Kathy Castor. Democratic U.S. Rep. Castor is beating two leading Republicans in the running for her seat in a district GOP mapmakers built specifically to retire her, according to a new St. Pete Polls survey commissioned by Florida Politics this week.<\/p>\n The numbers<\/a> show her beating former state Rep. Mike Beltran by 8 points, 46% to 38%, and edging state Rep. Kevin Steele 46% to 39%. Republicans redrew Florida\u2019s 14th Congressional District<\/a>\u00a0to lean about 11 points toward Trump, carving up the Tampa Bay seat Castor has held since 2007.<\/p>\n But Democrats have tried labeling the DeSantis map a \u201cdummymander<\/a>.\u201d That term describes a gerrymander that overreaches so badly it hands the targeted party an unintended opening, usually by spreading the favored party\u2019s own voters too thin across too many districts, or by underestimating how strong an entrenched incumbent really is.<\/p>\n Castor\u2019s seat may be an example of that very problem.<\/p>\n She didn\u2019t hold back when the new lines came out, saying DeSantis \u201cchose to give a political favor to Trump rather than protect Floridians\u2019 constitutional rights.\u201d These latest survey results are giving her renewed confidence, and she\u2019s backing up the poll numbers with fundraising \u2014 a million-dollar quarter left her with $1.3 million on hand heading into August.<\/p>\n The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee<\/a> is already treating this week\u2019s numbers as proof the strategy backfired. Spokesperson Anna Elsasser said flatly that \u201ctheir dummymander is blowing up in their faces,\u201d arguing that Tampa is sticking by the Congresswoman because she\u2019s delivered results for the district.<\/p>\n Professional handicappers aren\u2019t ready to call it, though \u2014 Cook Political Report and Sabato\u2019s Crystal Ball both still rate CD 14 as \u201cLeans Republican.\u201d But for a map built specifically to end Castor\u2019s two-decade run in Congress, \u201cclose\u201d isn\u2019t what Republicans had in mind. And come November, Castor could come out of this unscathed.<\/p>\n Almost (but not quite) the biggest winner: Demi Busatta. Busatta spent this week playing host to the country\u2019s biggest gathering of conservative state lawmakers, running the show as National Chair<\/a> of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).<\/p>\n ALEC brought its 53rd Annual Meeting to Orlando, pulling legislators in from across the country for several days of policy debate. Busatta welcomed the crowd by touting her home state\u2019s record, telling attendees<\/a> Florida has \u201cset the standard for education freedom and economic competitiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n The Cape Coral Republican didn\u2019t arrive at the gavel by accident. Before running for office, she spent time as a development director for a nonprofit, then served as Chief of Staff to former state Sen. Anitere Flores and worked in the Florida Senate Sergeant-at-Arms office. She has held her House seat since 2020.<\/p>\n The lineup she assembled for Orlando helped spotlight the network\u2019s national pull. Attendees heard from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, future Florida House Speaker Jennifer Canady<\/a>, Success Academy founder Eva Moskowitz, former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, economist Stephen Moore, and radio host Hugh Hewitt, who broadcast his show<\/a> live from the conference floor for several days running.<\/p>\n Legislators also spent the week debating roughly ninety pieces of proposed model legislation spanning topics like AI\u2019s role in health care, reforming Medicaid, watchdogging government spending and countering foreign influence. ALEC CEO Lisa Nelson and President and Chief Economist Jonathan Williams both helped steer the sessions alongside Busatta.<\/p>\n By the time the gavel came down, Busatta had turned her Chair position into a showcase for both ALEC and the state she represents.<\/p>\n The biggest winner: Florida Democrats. The Florida Democratic Party (FDP) spent last weekend throwing its biggest event of the year.<\/p>\n Party faithful gathered at Disney\u2019s Coronado Springs Resort for the annual Leadership Blue<\/a> weekend, capped by a Saturday night gala headlined by former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg<\/a>. This swing through Central Florida was yet another stop on Buttigieg\u2019s tour of the country since leaving the Cabinet, a trip most people read as early positioning for a possible 2028 White House run.<\/p>\n Buttigieg didn\u2019t sugarcoat the math Democrats are up against in a state where Republican registrants now outnumber Democrats by more than a million and a half, but he pushed back hard<\/a> on the idea that Florida is a lost cause.<\/p>\n The weekend doubled as a showcase for the bench replacing that leadership. Incoming Senate Democratic Leader Tracie Davis and incoming House Democratic Leader Christine Hunschofsky both took the stage, alongside U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, who arrived fresh off an automatic re-election as no one filed to challenge him.<\/p>\n Gubernatorial hopeful David Jolly supplied one of the weekend\u2019s loudest applause lines<\/a>, telling the crowd that \u201cif the election were tonight, we would win this race\u201d against Republican Byron Donalds. He spent much of his speech arguing Donalds had let deep-pocketed interests buy his loyalty, drawing repeated cheers from the room.<\/p>\n As FDP Chair Nikki Fried attempts to eat into the GOP\u2019s growing edge in Florida, Leadership Blue looked like exactly the kind of energized, well-attended show of force a minority party hopes to put on before a Midterm.<\/p>\n Losers<\/p>\n Dishonorable mention: Jackie Espinosa. The Kissimmee Mayor is facing possible removal from office after an independent investigator concluded she broke the city\u2019s ethics code<\/a> over a COVID relief program tied to her own family\u2019s businesses.<\/p>\n Special Prosecutor Mayanne Downs spent months digging through seven separate ethics allegations before releasing her findings<\/a> in a 13-page report Thursday.<\/p>\n She cleared Espinosa on four of the counts \u2014 including accusations that the mayor cut off a public speaker mid-meeting and pushed through refunds for people she knew \u2014 but found clear grounds to proceed on the remaining three: an improper conflict of interest, a failure to disclose a financial stake, and disregarding formal advice from the City Attorney.<\/p>\n All three tie back to Business Boost 2.0, a city initiative created to funnel federal pandemic relief dollars to struggling small businesses. Espinosa herself cast the vote to expand that program, and businesses connected to her and her relatives went on to collect $50,000 from it.<\/p>\n Former City Attorney Olga Sanchez de Fuentes had flagged the arrangement months earlier, telling Espinosa and City Manager Mike Steigerwald in a December email that she believed the payments ran afoul of state ethics rulings \u2014 citing three separate opinions from the Florida Commission on Ethics on elected officials benefiting from programs under their own control.<\/p>\n Espinosa kept the funding anyway.<\/p>\n Downs\u2019 report didn\u2019t pull punches<\/a>, declaring that \u201cno warning should have been necessary; the oath of office is warning enough.\u201d She also recommended referring the matter to outside law enforcement and called for a full accounting \u2014 and the return \u2014 of the missing money.<\/p>\n Espinosa didn\u2019t make the review easy, initially refusing to cooperate and filing an appeal that slowed the special prosecutor\u2019s work by months. Now, her team is signaling a fight rather than a resignation.<\/p>\n The impeachment recommendation now heads to the Kissimmee City Commission to decide what happens next.<\/p>\n Almost (but not quite) the biggest loser: Paula Stark. Stark\u2019s bid to save her House seat has collapsed for good, closing out a monthslong saga that started with a single missing form from an incumbent lawmaker who should know better.<\/p>\n Stark, a two-term St. Cloud Republican representing House District 47, was left off the 2026 ballot after the state said her campaign never turned in a required financial disclosure, known as Form 6, by the noon June 12 qualifying deadline.<\/p>\n Stark and her campaign Treasurer \u2014 and partner \u2014 Joel Davis insisted the form had been hand-delivered in Tallahassee, only to be mistakenly returned to Davis by a confused clerk.<\/p>\n Five Division of Elections staffers who worked the counter that day told a different story under oath, testifying that everything they received before the deadline got stamped, and that they had no memory of handing anything back. Leon Circuit Judge Joshua Hawkes sided with the state staffers on July 9, writing that \u201cthe Form 6 was not turned in before the noon deadline.\u201d<\/p>\n He gave Stark seven days to explain why the case shouldn\u2019t be dismissed. She failed to do so, so Hawkes refused to put Stark back on the ballot by issuing a final order of dismissal<\/a>.<\/p>\n Stark brought in<\/a> attorney Anthony Sabatini to lead an appeal, a hire that landed the same day a Judge tossed out another Sabatini case entirely \u2014 his effort to remove U.S. Rep. Cory Mills from Florida\u2019s 7th Congressional District ballot \u2014 with prejudice. Mills didn\u2019t hold back afterward, saying Sabatini had \u201cproven he can\u2019t just lose campaigns but is equally a terrible attorney.\u201d<\/p>\n Why Stark would want to tie her fate to Sabatini is a mystery, but she learned the hard way what most in The Process already know: Sabatini is a surefire loser.<\/p>\n That ruling effectively flips District 47 to the Democrats. With no Republican qualified, Jorge Figueroa and Anthony Nieves will face off in an Aug. 18 Primary open to every registered voter in the district, regardless of party.<\/p>\n When the ballot fight first broke, Stark said<\/a> she just wanted the process to play out fairly, insisting \u201cit is important that facts \u2014 not speculation, assumptions, or political spin \u2014 guide the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n In the end, the facts were exactly what sank her.<\/p>\n The biggest loser: Cory Mills. Speaking of Mills, the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into Mills this week, according to a report by MS NOW<\/a> that was quickly confirmed by other outlets<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sources told reporters the inquiry touches on Mills\u2019 personal finances, though the exact scope hasn\u2019t been made public. One source added that the FBI had already reached out to at least one person last year with questions about Mills\u2019 money and the broader allegations swirling around him. Mills brushed off the news when a reporter asked him about it, saying \u201cthis is the first I\u2019m hearing about it.\u201d<\/p>\n The DOJ probe piles onto an existing House Ethics Committee investigation<\/a> that\u2019s been running since November. That inquiry covers a wide range of allegations, from sexual misconduct and improper gifts to campaign finance violations and misuse of congressional resources.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Disaster-Contractors-Network-728x90-1.png\")
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